Just wondering. What if it doesn't happen under JJ?

[drh1150]

You know, some good moments, a few good wins, but pretty much just treading water, not really a national name anymore.

Would that OU coach consider returning to her alma mater?
I see the #1 recruit has committed to her.

Way way too early to judge Jan but next years team, unless a savior or 2 come from the portal, will struggle.

 

[Tom Paris]

Bwahahahaha!!!!!!!

 

[BGHAWK]

You know, some good moments, a few good wins, but pretty much just treading water, not really a national name anymore.

Would that OU coach consider returning to her alma mater?
I see the #1 recruit has committed to her.

Way way too early to judge Jan but next years team, unless a savior or 2 come from the portal, will struggle.

Really? Really? This already? Some people must lay awake at night thinking stuff up.

 

[r448chlpo]

What if an asteroid hits Iowa City and we all die?

 

[Gonzo Bloor]

She did very well IMO taking over a team that lost CC and two other starters and team leaders. Loads of young talent to work with. We'll be fine.

 

[intrepodor]

She did very well IMO taking over a team that lost CC and two other starters and team leaders. Loads of young talent to work with. We'll be fine.

It depends on the type of recruits brought in

 

[Hendy hawk]

Really? Really? This already? Some people must lay awake at night thinking stuff up.

The mind is a crazy thing isn't it.

 

[pnw_hawkeye]

It depends on the type of recruits brought in

You mean like the highly rated 2025 recruiting class Jan has coming in this fall?

 

[amahawk]

We will have to wait and see.

 

[hawkod]

You know, some good moments, a few good wins, but pretty much just treading water, not really a national name anymore.

Would that OU coach consider returning to her alma mater?
I see the #1 recruit has committed to her.

Way way too early to judge Jan but next years team, unless a savior or 2 come from the portal, will struggle.

 

[nu2u]

You know, some good moments, a few good wins, but pretty much just treading water, not really a national name anymore.

Would that OU coach consider returning to her alma mater?
I see the #1 recruit has committed to her.

Way way too early to judge Jan but next years team, unless a savior or 2 come from the portal, will struggle.

No real basis for your inquiry but I’ll go ahead and answer the question posed, to wit: would Jennie Baranczyk consider returning to Iowa.

She has strong ties to the state - hometown Urbandale, Dowling HS, Iowa (player), Drake (HC). Female version of McCollum? I don’t know but no reason to believe she wouldn’t seriously consider it.

 

[littlez]

To be fair to the OP he’s not 100% wrong. I think we all know Bluder was a very good coach and then CC arrived and she became a great coach. Jan doesn’t have that luxury. Now we’re back to being Iowa. While you would think girls would want to come play in front of 12-15K every night they just don’t. And probably never will. I won’t blame Jan for any of that. She did an excellent job with a team of role players and Lucy Olsen. Next year is going to be even tougher unless we get a few in the portal. We’re in on some 2026 recruits but can we close them? History unfortunately tells us no. Not really sure why honestly.

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

For a lot of Bluder's career at Iowa, the Hawks made their biggest runs when we had singular talents who were able to make those around them better. We had a few strong seasons when we had Logic ... then we had some good ones attributable to Gustafson ... and then obviously, most recently, we had Clark.

I think that if you look at Jan ... I think we're already recruiting pretty well. If we can maintain that ... and continue to build off a pretty strong "transition" season ... I think that things are still looking pretty bright.

Obviously, Baranczyk is a mighty fine coach and we'd be lucky to have her. However, I also think that we're lucky to have Jan. I suppose we'll have to see how things shake out.

If you look at Kim Mulkey ... she coached at Baylor for a good long time, but she's originally from Louisiana. That "home pull" is part of what ultimately drew her over to LSU.

 

[mvhomerl]

You know, some good moments, a few good wins, but pretty much just treading water, not really a national name anymore.

Would that OU coach consider returning to her alma mater?
I see the #1 recruit has committed to her.

Way way too early to judge Jan but next years team, unless a savior or 2 come from the portal, will struggle.

Just this...JFC!!!

 

[onlyTheObvious]

At Iowa you get a minimum of 15 years to prove you are the right person for the job.

 

[nu2u]

At Iowa you get a minimum of 15 years to prove you are the right person for the job.

If Jensen is HC at Iowa for 15 years that would almost be a perfect timeframe to hand the reigns to 37 year old Caitlin Clark. I don’t think CC would have much of a problem recruiting (or coaching!).

 

[onlyTheObvious]

If Jensen is HC at Iowa for 15 years that would almost be a perfect timeframe to hand the reigns to 37 year old Caitlin Clark. I don’t think CC would have much of a problem recruiting (or coaching!).

Agreed,

-Magic Johnson

Quite often the best players make awful coaches because they can understand why everybody wasn’t as brilliant and gifted as they were.

Minnesota fired their version of Clark recently.

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

You know, some good moments, a few good wins, but pretty much just treading water, not really a national name anymore.

Would that OU coach consider returning to her alma mater?
I see the #1 recruit has committed to her.

Way way too early to judge Jan but next years team, unless a savior or 2 come from the portal, will struggle.

Here's another consideration .... before Jud Heathcote and Magic Johnson, Michigan State really wasn't a national name in basketball. However, Magic did happen ... and you couldn't uncork the bottle after that (and put the genie back in) ... and Michigan State has been a name ever since. Of course, part of that is also attributable to Tom Izzo being a tremendous coach too. However, it would appear that Michigan State's rise all started with Magic.

So what is to say that Caitlin Clark isn't Iowa's version of Magic Johnson (as it relates to women's basketball)? Once the genie is out ... she's a living, breathing promotion for Iowa women's basketball.

 

[ghostOfHomer777]

Agreed,

-Magic Johnson

Quite often the best players make awful coaches because they can understand why everybody wasn’t as brilliant and gifted as they were.

Minnesota fired their version of Clark recently.

In that regard, I think that part of the problem is that not all brilliant/gifted people are good teachers. They might be great at their trade-craft ... but it doesn't imply that they're great at nurturing talent in the same field.

 

[BGHAWK]

Like Jan Jensen, Tom Izzo was a longtime assistant under Jud Heathcoate.

 

[nu2u]

Quite often the best players make awful coaches because they can understand why everybody wasn’t as brilliant and gifted as they were.

Well she may materially change her character and transform into a complete different person in the next 15 years but I don’t anticipate an arrogant and hubristic 37 year old Caitlin Clark but I suppose it could happen.

As for coaching ability, it seems to me that Caitlin Clark has a very good understanding of the fundamentals. Bluder (and now White) are excellent mentors. There have been, are now, will be others. I believe a case could be made that WNBA rookie had at least as much basketball sense as Indiana Fever head coach Christie Sides.

 

[acuhawk]

I don't think Lisa would have won any more games this year than Jan. Can't be proven either way so just stupid speculation. Jan deserves at least the next 2 years to gauge what the programs ceiling is in my opinion.

 

[fehfkf]

I think Kate Martin would be one to watch as a possible head coach

 

[nu2u]

I think Kate Martin would be one to watch as a possible head coach

I could see it. It seems plausible, even likely, that Kate and Caitlin stay connected to basketball in some way. Who knows, maybe Clark would rather advance into management …… or not, looking ahead 15 or 20 years or longer is a precarious endeavor.

 

[kceasthawk]

Here's another consideration .... before Jud Heathcote and Magic Johnson, Michigan State really wasn't a national name in basketball. However, Magic did happen ... and you couldn't uncork the bottle after that (and put the genie back in) ... and Michigan State has been a name ever since. Of course, part of that is also attributable to Tom Izzo being a tremendous coach too. However, it would appear that Michigan State's rise all started with Magic.

So what is to say that Caitlin Clark isn't Iowa's version of Magic Johnson (as it relates to women's basketball)? Once the genie is out ... she's a living, breathing promotion for Iowa women's basketball.

Clark certainly happened, and it remains to be seen if we can "cash in" on that success. Something else happened during the "CC22 experience", thru no fault of her own. This racial divide during the CC vs Angel mess in college. I think we may still be seeing the after effects from some of the Crazies posting on social media, whether they really were Iowa fans or not makes no difference, because the perception is that they were. Last year we went after several top 15 portal targets, and had zero interest in coming to Iowa. We've just watched the impact that Sahara Williams had for Oklahoma as a soph, and we recruited her with no mutual interest from a Waterloo west product to play for the states flagship school who was a top 5 power at the time. We are currently recruiting a number of top 5-20 level young women, pretty much all of them white, which is great if we can land the likes of Harpring, Waliczko, Kussow, and Bjorn, but you have to wonder why there's not much mutual interest from ladies of color. I realize that for sometime our recruiting has been heavily based in the upper midwest. Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois to a degree, and the demographics are probably pretty similar to Iowa. We do seem to be branching out more nationally. Are last three big gets are left coasters in Deal from Cali, Heiden from Oregon, and Hays from Alaska. I guess my question is, what does Iowa do to become more diverse, as we seem to be basically ignored from an entire group of high school athletes, or does no one consider this to be an issue. I'm pretty sure its been one on the mens forum for sometime now. Does this apply to the womens team as well?

 

[Hawksbyamillion]

Clark certainly happened, and it remains to be seen if we can "cash in" on that success. Something else happened during the "CC22 experience", thru no fault of her own. This racial divide during the CC vs Angel mess in college. I think we may still be seeing the after effects from some of the Crazies posting on social media, whether they really were Iowa fans or not makes no difference, because the perception is that they were. Last year we went after several top 15 portal targets, and had zero interest in coming to Iowa. We've just watched the impact that Sahara Williams had for Oklahoma as a soph, and we recruited her with no mutual interest from a Waterloo west product to play for the states flagship school who was a top 5 power at the time. We are currently recruiting a number of top 5-20 level young women, pretty much all of them white, which is great if we can land the likes of Harpring, Waliczko, Kussow, and Bjorn, but you have to wonder why there's not much mutual interest from ladies of color. I realize that for sometime our recruiting has been heavily based in the upper midwest. Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois to a degree, and the demographics are probably pretty similar to Iowa. We do seem to be branching out more nationally. Are last three big gets are left coasters in Deal from Cali, Heiden from Oregon, and Hays from Alaska. I guess my question is, what does Iowa do to become more diverse, as we seem to be basically ignored from an entire group of high school athletes, or does no one consider this to be an issue. I'm pretty sure its been one on the mens forum for sometime now. Does this apply to the womens team as well?

I get what you’re saying and agree there has been more racial divide within women’s basketball ever since that moment during the 2023 NC game. And I agree it’s probably both negatively and positively impacted our recruiting with certain demographics. I don’t know what people are saying on social media and even if it’s Iowa fans as I’m just not on there. I was taken aback though by how many people have vehemently defended and promoted Reese because of that incident. I still don’t understand it (and no Clark never did anything remotely that disrespectful to any of her competitors). I may get blasted for this but here are my thoughts:

If someone thinks what Reese did to Clark was ok and defends/promotes that behavior I don’t want them on my team. I would be ashamed if we had a player on Iowa’s team who behaved that way and it may even make me stop watching. This is why I agree with Jan and Lisa’s approach to creating a good culture on our team. And no, I don’t mean a white culture. I’m talking about a culture where the players play hard, win, are selfless, and are good role models for the youth in our state to look up to. If that team consists of more Asian, Hispanic, Black, or white players at any point of time isn’t important to me. What’s more important is who they are as people and players on the court, not their skin color.

 

[LetsGoHawks83]

I get what you’re saying and agree there has been more racial divide within women’s basketball ever since that moment during the 2023 NC game. And I agree it’s probably both negatively and positively impacted our recruiting with certain demographics. I don’t know what people are saying on social media and even if it’s Iowa fans as I’m just not on there. I was taken aback though by how many people have vehemently defended and promoted Reese because of that incident. I still don’t understand it (and no Clark never did anything remotely that disrespectful to any of her competitors). I may get blasted for this but here are my thoughts:

If someone thinks what Reese did to Clark was ok and defends/promotes that behavior I don’t want them on my team. I would be ashamed if we had a player on Iowa’s team who behaved that way and it may even make me stop watching. This is why I agree with Jan and Lisa’s approach to creating a good culture on our team. And no, I don’t mean a white culture. I’m talking about a culture where the players play hard, win, are selfless, and are good role models for the youth in our state to look up to. If that team consists of more Asian, Hispanic, Black, or white players at any point of time isn’t important to me. What’s more important is who they are as people and players on the court, not their skin color.

 

[citizenHawk]

I think Kachine Alexander said there is an "Iowa type" among recruiting conversations in the summer leagues. Players are talked about with that sort of distinction. I mean, it's a plus to have a "brand," but also a lot of players just might not identify with it.

When race comes up, I'm often reading comments from people that actually believe there are nothing but blonde white girls on the roster--even with Hannah front and center on the court, Alliyah playing significant minutes.

But that is just perception. Iowa has been recruiting all sorts of girls, Journey Houston coming next season and recent talk hinted that Trinity Jones might still be on the recruiting table.

As long as they can attract some quality basketball players, doesn't matter. Just need players to come take a look and get on campus.

 

[cmhawks99]

I think Kachine Alexander said there is an "Iowa type" among recruiting conversations in the summer leagues. Players are talked about with that sort of distinction. I mean, it's a plus to have a "brand," but also a lot of players just might not identify with it.

When race comes up, I'm often reading comments from people that actually believe there are nothing but blonde white girls on the roster--even with Hannah front and center on the court, Alliyah playing significant minutes.

But that is just perception. Iowa has been recruiting all sorts of girls, Journey Houston coming next season and recent talk hinted that Trinity Jones might still be on the recruiting table.

As long as they can attract some quality basketball players, doesn't matter. Just need players to come take a look and get on campus.

Here’s the thing it’s hard to feel good about the season when you get blown out like that in your last game and the reactionary types of which we have a whole lot of on this board always jump to the conclusion that we just flat suck, but I will remind everybody, Oklahoma lost too South Carolina by 41 this year who lost to UCONN by what 25 or 30 ….

Sometimes it just happens🤷‍♂️

 

[kceasthawk]

I get what you’re saying and agree there has been more racial divide within women’s basketball ever since that moment during the 2023 NC game. And I agree it’s probably both negatively and positively impacted our recruiting with certain demographics. I don’t know what people are saying on social media and even if it’s Iowa fans as I’m just not on there. I was taken aback though by how many people have vehemently defended and promoted Reese because of that incident. I still don’t understand it (and no Clark never did anything remotely that disrespectful to any of her competitors). I may get blasted for this but here are my thoughts:

If someone thinks what Reese did to Clark was ok and defends/promotes that behavior I don’t want them on my team. I would be ashamed if we had a player on Iowa’s team who behaved that way and it may even make me stop watching. This is why I agree with Jan and Lisa’s approach to creating a good culture on our team. And no, I don’t mean a white culture. I’m talking about a culture where the players play hard, win, are selfless, and are good role models for the youth in our state to look up to. If that team consists of more Asian, Hispanic, Black, or white players at any point of time isn’t important to me. What’s more important is who they are as people and players on the court, not their skin color.

Believe me, I was never okay with what Reese did, (I posted at the time , it was the worst display of sportsmanship I'd ever seen, and on a national tv forum). I'd never want an Angel, or Cody playing for my team. I do believe however, that most of the outrage from the black community really mostly driven by misinformation from the media( saying CC22 had done the same thing to HVL) which of course was false, and then a reaction to some of the horrid posts from many "supposed" Clark fans. Either way, it would have been nice for some fact checking before this got so out of control, but I do think were still seeing some after shocks from that. In all honesty, I also don't care whatsoever what the skin color of our players is. I'm simply making an observation based on where we are, how we may have reached this point, and where we go from here.

 

[Hawkeye1984]

To be fair to the OP he’s not 100% wrong. I think we all know Bluder was a very good coach and then CC arrived and she became a great coach. Jan doesn’t have that luxury. Now we’re back to being Iowa. While you would think girls would want to come play in front of 12-15K every night they just don’t. And probably never will. I won’t blame Jan for any of that. She did an excellent job with a team of role players and Lucy Olsen. Next year is going to be even tougher unless we get a few in the portal. We’re in on some 2026 recruits but can we close them? History unfortunately tells us no. Not really sure why honestly.

This take couldn’t be more off base—it’s completely uninformed. It feels like we’re reverting to the mindset of being just another “Iowa” again. This is exactly the kind of thinking that holds a program back from reaching the next level. Iowa had a once-in-a-generation talent and still failed to capitalize on it to build something lasting. They couldn’t even leverage that momentum into meaningful fundraising or infrastructure that would secure the program’s future. Opportunities like this don’t come around often. If you can’t elevate a program after consecutive Final Fours, Elite Eights, Sweet Sixteens, and three Big Ten championships, then the truth is—you never will. The window to build a legacy is now, and missing it would be a monumental failure.

 

[stanzithemanzi12]

Bwahahahaha!!!!!!!

What about Tom Paris?

 

[AMAYS]

Clark certainly happened, and it remains to be seen if we can "cash in" on that success. Something else happened during the "CC22 experience", thru no fault of her own. This racial divide during the CC vs Angel mess in college. I think we may still be seeing the after effects from some of the Crazies posting on social media, whether they really were Iowa fans or not makes no difference, because the perception is that they were. Last year we went after several top 15 portal targets, and had zero interest in coming to Iowa. We've just watched the impact that Sahara Williams had for Oklahoma as a soph, and we recruited her with no mutual interest from a Waterloo west product to play for the states flagship school who was a top 5 power at the time. We are currently recruiting a number of top 5-20 level young women, pretty much all of them white, which is great if we can land the likes of Harpring, Waliczko, Kussow, and Bjorn, but you have to wonder why there's not much mutual interest from ladies of color. I realize that for sometime our recruiting has been heavily based in the upper midwest. Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois to a degree, and the demographics are probably pretty similar to Iowa. We do seem to be branching out more nationally. Are last three big gets are left coasters in Deal from Cali, Heiden from Oregon, and Hays from Alaska. I guess my question is, what does Iowa do to become more diverse, as we seem to be basically ignored from an entire group of high school athletes, or does no one consider this to be an issue. I'm pretty sure its been one on the mens forum for sometime now. Does this apply to the womens team as well?

Good post. I was on team Jenni last May when Bluder retired, in part because I thought she might have a better chance at expanding Iowa's recruiting demographic, especially with elite out-of-state players. I was also not a fan of the Randi Henderson hire, because I was hoping Iowa would go after a proven recruiter (Randi seems like a really good post coach). When Randi was hired, Jan made clear that Jan, Raina and Abby would be the "main recruiters," though Randi and Sean could also help out. Jan obviously has a lot of confidence in her own recruiting abilities, and is also showing a lot of confidence in Raina and Abby. By the time the '26 class arrives at Iowa, we should have a pretty good idea whether Jan and company are going to be able to up Iowa's game in terms of landing elite McDonald's AA-level talent. I'm in for the ride, supporting Jan and Swarm.

 

[littlez]

This take couldn’t be more off base—it’s completely uninformed. It feels like we’re reverting to the mindset of being just another “Iowa” again. This is exactly the kind of thinking that holds a program back from reaching the next level. Iowa had a once-in-a-generation talent and still failed to capitalize on it to build something lasting. They couldn’t even leverage that momentum into meaningful fundraising or infrastructure that would secure the program’s future. Opportunities like this don’t come around often. If you can’t elevate a program after consecutive Final Fours, Elite Eights, Sweet Sixteens, and three Big Ten championships, then the truth is—you never will. The window to build a legacy is now, and missing it would be a monumental failure.

Explain how I’m uninformed?

 

[Rocket_Fran]

Agreed,

-Magic Johnson

Quite often the best players make awful coaches because they can understand why everybody wasn’t as brilliant and gifted as they were.

Minnesota fired their version

It seems to me that those elite players turned failed coaches never could turn what they “see” and “feel” on the court into something less abstract. They can’t translate a complicated, nebulous, implicit ability into sets of simpler, explicit, teachable skills. And even if they have assistants who can the former elite players lack the patience to let players build that skill at an organic rate or they lack the humility to properly delegate, listen, or adapt.

Regardless, the most important personality traits needed for coaching aren’t static. So, if CC/KM/whoever she has them or doesn’t have them now it doesn’t guarantee she will or won’t have them later. That's primarily dependent on genetics, your partner, and your inner social circle. I've learned betting against 22 is a fool's errand so I won't start now even if its her post-playing days 15 years away. WNBA commissioner or Nike CEO is on the table, IMO.

 

[Rocket_Fran]

This take couldn’t be more off base—it’s completely uninformed. It feels like we’re reverting to the mindset of being just another “Iowa” again. This is exactly the kind of thinking that holds a program back from reaching the next level. Iowa had a once-in-a-generation talent and still failed to capitalize on it to build something lasting. They couldn’t even leverage that momentum into meaningful fundraising or infrastructure that would secure the program’s future. Opportunities like this don’t come around often. If you can’t elevate a program after consecutive Final Fours, Elite Eights, Sweet Sixteens, and three Big Ten championships, then the truth is—you never will. The window to build a legacy is now, and missing it would be a monumental failure.

Why do you think that or what can you point to that suggests the biggest impact has to be immediate?

I said this last summer, but the CC recruiting impact will have a very long tail. Especially in another a year or two, with multiple teams full of new and diverse WNBA teammates winning championships, the unfair racial slant against CC, and by extension, Iowa, will have a much, much smaller impact. That is, barring any more new racial narrative setbacks (fair or unfair) centered on Iowa. Not going to rehash the legitimacy or amount of perceived racial bias against iowa- that's just my perspective, which forms the basis of my overall opinion which is why I include it.

A lot of players in their late teens are more fully formed/concrete than early-mid teens, often parroting opinions from their social circle, right? The younger players now, will have missed most of that circus 2 years ago as a function of their age, and in addition, will also see CC through that child's lens that creates a literal storybook larger than life aura for them. That gap is only 4-ish years. Moving forward, CC will be as big as Lebron or MJ. Maybe bigger? Because her story literally means more than theirs did on a human level. Changing the game organically in the most entertaining way possible, increasing perceived equality. She is already the next face, it is ordained. This impact is 5-10 years from being fully realized for Iowa recruiting.

If you think that's melodramatic, well, you're right it is a tad, look at the ratings the last 2 years for WNCAA and listen to the anecdotes. Look at 26',27' classes and how much higher across the board we're getting recruits on campus. It's like a 250% increase in rankings in serious consideration in 2 years. We couldn't get Lauren Betts to take a phone call last summer... WITH CC ON OUR TEAM. That, in itself, should tell you everything you need to know about the feasibility of immediately capitalizing on her success and already deeming it a failure. Now, the #1 recruit in 26' is legit interested

Now, coaches are still human and they could fail to capitalize which is why I think JJ will/should have very high expectations by year 3. If she isn't close by that time then quickly move on to the next coach. Obviously, I could be very wrong and irrationally optimistic but I don't see great evidence to the contrary, yet.

 

[Hawkeyes2133]

Would love to have her. But I don't think jan is going anywhere for at least 5 years.

Hope raina stays(shes had offers and is considered one of the best assitants in the league). Raina Harmon would deserve the job if she stays.

 

[AMAYS]

Would love to have her. But I don't think jan is going anywhere for at least 5 years.

Hope raina stays(shes had offers and is considered one of the best assitants in the league). Raina Harmon would deserve the job if she stays.

What offers has Raina had, for what position?